Buy Now or Wait?

[Tom May #13242]

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the 505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range, capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

 

[Moxie]

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X
zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced
that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the
505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a
Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range,
capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should
I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

I was faced with the same decision; the 505 was good, but lacked a couple of things I was looking for... Finally decided to get the camera, rather than wait for a revised 505; am really glad I did. I have been having so much fun, and the quality of the images (even with JPEG compression) have been super. When/if a revised 505 comes out; I'll probably buy it, but in the meantime, I'm having a blast, and getting nice pictures !

Hope this helps...

 

[trkk]

You sound like me! I waited a long time for an upgrade to the Mavica 91, and waited. In the mean time I was using my film cameras and paying for prints. When this one came out, of course I did my homework and it didn't take long to know this was the one I have been waiting for. The next generation will always be coming out, but the quality and fun factor here is fantastic. I have my 505 with me all the time now and I'm always "camera ready". Go for it!
Links for F505 users here:
http://www.topcities.com/Arts/f505/links.html

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X
zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced
that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the
505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a
Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range,
capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should
I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

 

[Moxie]

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X
zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced
that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the
505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a
Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range,
capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should
I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

Tom, here's just a sample...

http://www.aim4life.com/dsc-f505/welcome.htm

Darrel

 

[Robert MacLellan]

Speculative.. but wrong! The Cybershot division and the Mavica division do not share electronics.

As you can see from all the dozens of samples out there the "high compression" criticism is bogus. Sony has such accurate compression algorithms that it can give the user the benefits of smaller storage size where other manufacturers have to sacrifice quality.

Your other comments about zoom range and LCD are unclear as to what you are trying to say!

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X
zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced
that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the
505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a
Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range,
capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should
I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

 

[Marc]

Tom, you absolutely won't be disappointed. This camera is SO GOOD. Unless you download some pictures into your computer and print them, you just can't imagine how excellent the camera really is. My plan is to use the F505 until the third generation camera comes out then buy another. That should fix my small gripes (the lens creates a shadow when using the flash in macro mode, red-eye is a slight problem, I would prefer an adjustable ISO (50-1600) range and wider aperature range and shutter speeds, 10X-15X optical zoom, unlimted MPEG, uncompressed mode).

I demoed a 505 at the local Good Guys. I liked the ergonomics and the 5X
zoom. After reading as much as I could over the last week, I'm convinced
that with a minor amount or reengineering in the electronics, that the
505 would be the benchmark for digital cameras in its price range.

Its my speculation that most of the negatives are due to the use of a
Mavica microcontroller in the camera. High compression, wide zoom range,
capable LCD, and limited internal buffer would all point to this.

An updated microcontroller would probably resolve most of the negatives.

I intend on using this as a multipurpose camera for web and print. Should
I buy now or wait for the next rev?

Tom May

 

[Tom May #13242]

Speculative.. but wrong! The Cybershot division and the Mavica division
do not share electronics.
As you can see from all the dozens of samples out there the "high
compression" criticism is bogus. Sony has such accurate compression
algorithms that it can give the user the benefits of smaller storage size
where other manufacturers have to sacrifice quality.
Your other comments about zoom range and LCD are unclear as to what you
are trying to say!

Charles,

Thanks for the clarification on the electronics.

My comments on wide zoom range (example: FD91 @14X), and capable LCD, were in reference to the Mavica product line. I should have stated that
explicitly.

At any rate, a common thread of concern that I and others have voiced regards the high levels of compression and the lack of significant internal

memory. In comparison with the Kodak 290 for instance,which I believe has 16Mbyte, this would seem to be a limitation in both quality and features.

That being said, I will make a more comprehensive search for images to print and compare.

Thanks again for your comments,

To